Vidona
The Vidona are one of the six factions governing the hexarchate in the Machineries of Empire universe. Notable Vidona include Hexarch Vidona Psa, Vidona Ekesra, and the legendary Vidona Oressa. Role The Vidona are a low faction; their corresponding high faction is the Andan.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2 They disseminate Doctrine; punish, execute, or reeducate dissidents and heretics;Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3, 6 ritually torture traitors and heretics on remembrance days; and are responsible for educating the hexarchate's children up to age seventeen. Every Vidona is capable of rendering a remembrance; some are also trained to keep heretics alive for more torture.The Factions: Low Faction Vidona The Vidona are routinely sent to conquered or scoured areas to reeducate any survivors according to Doctrine and to repopulate with enough loyal citizens to return the calendrical terrain to acceptable values.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 3 Their reeducation procedures are more thorough after rebellions in strategically sensitive areas, such as nexus fortresses.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20 The Vidona tend to be insular and conservative.Author's website As they are feared by the populaceNinefox Gambit, Chapter 6 and are not regarded highly by the other factions, they tend to be extremely loyal to one another and to marry within their faction.The Factions: Low Faction Vidona They respect the Rahal as the source of Doctrine and value the loyalty of the Kel. They consider the friction between the Andan and Shuos borderline disloyal. Their medical branch associates closely with the Nirai,The Factions: Low Faction Vidona whose immortal hexarch, Nirai Kujen, created the remembrances in their modern form. Meanwhile, they are grudgingly respected by the Rahal and Kel; considered rigid but necessary by the Nirai and an unsubtle but necessary tool by the Andan; and regarded by the Shuos as a blunt instrument and long-term liability.Author's website Government The Vidona center of government was the Greentide Fortress.The Factions: Low Faction Vidona Their emblem is the stingray,Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 2 and their colors are green and bronze. The most recent Vidona hexarch was Vidona Psa. Technology The Vidona deathtouch is used ceremonially in remembrances, or, rarely,The Factions: Low Faction Vidona to summarily execute heretics.Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2 Recruitment Appropriate Vidona candidates are inflexibly loyal and strong of stomach. All Vidona, no matter their intended role in the faction, are required to train in the blood arts. People who apply to the faction tend to either be devoted to the system or to gain enjoyment from their fearful activities and reputation.The Factions: Low Faction Vidona Culture The art of paper-folding is specific to the Vidona due to its elaborate use on corpses after application of the Vidona deathtouch. For this reason, it is one of the few fine arts disdained by the Andan,Raven Stratagem, Chapter 2 and even small children in the hexarchte recognize paper sculptures as ominous.The Factions: Low Faction Vidona History Hexarch Nirai Kujen lived in a Vidona orphanage for a while as a youth, and did not like the experience. As a Nirai cadet, his feelings about Vidona orphanages prevented him from bringing a starving street child to one for food and safety, resulting in her death.Revenant Gun, Chapter 6 Lieutenant General Kel Sumaarzaav and her lover spent a good deal of time volunteering at Vidona orphanages. A change in the realm's policy after the purging of the Liozh, making prisoners of war potential remembrance fodder for the convenience of the Vidona, spurred her to secede from the hexarchate; some traditionally-minded Vidona were among her supporters.Seven Views of a Kel Secession Petty squabbles with the Vidona were partially responsible for weakening the Shuos before the hexarch's seat fell to Shuos Mikodez.Revenant Gun, Chapter 2 Vahenz afrir dai Noum despised the Vidona and insisted on "no blunt methods" being used in the heretical takeover of the Fortress of Scattered Needles. She advised that the Vidona detained in the takeover of the fortress be processed for release as a propaganda gambit.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 11 Simulators were provided for Fortress residents eager to try Vidona methods on others.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 15 After the Fortress was recaptured, Brevet General Kel Cheris requested Andan or Vidona backup, preferably both.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 20 In a rare successful effort to reduce the number of local people handed over to the Vidona, the planetary governor of Krauwer 5 invited a coalition of endangered workers to tea for negotiations, and sat in the Vidona overseer's office and stared at her every day for four months until the invitation was accepted.Revenant Gun, Chapter 5 After remembrance tortures were abolished under the revised calendar, the role of the Vidona in the Compact became unclear,Revenant Gun, Chapter 2 though the citizens' reflexive fear of them was slow to ebb.Revenant Gun, Chapter 21 The faction and its supporters were among the least accepting of the new social order. A year later, in the city of Tauvit, medical doctors trained by the Vidona went on strike, despite negotiations by the Compact's head of state.Revenant Gun, Chapter 8 Teachers also retained Vidona sympathies despite renouncing their faction allegiance and frequently protested curriculum changes.Revenant Gun, Chapter 21 When the Protectorate finally adopted the revised calendar nine years later, the Vidona were again the most reluctant to accept the change.Revenant Gun, Chapter 12 Their old role in rendering heretics for remembrances was confined to the last polity left under the high calendar, Terebeg 4, until ceasing on the anniversary of the massacre at Hellspin Fortress.Revenant Gun, Chapter 21 Trivia * A certain Vidona museum contains the purported skin of a Liozh cadet, tattooed with the holy days of a heretical group the cadet had approached with information about the heptarchate's high calendar. The Liozh failure to retaliate for the group's execution of their cadet was later seen as a sign of their unfitness.Seven Views of the Liozh Entrance Exam * Despite his fondness for remembrances, Kujen did not bring any Vidona to Tefos Base, leaving Hemiola with only a vague idea of their role in remembrances.Revenant Gun, Chapter 15 * Although shape-folding was a distinctly Vidona art for hundreds of years, Kujen knew how to make folded paper moths.Revenant Gun, Chapter 4 * A dispute between groundside Andan and Vidona governors led to Kel infantry, including junior lieutenant Kel Muyyed, being loaned to the Andan for police work as a substitute for local Vidona.Revenant Gun, Chapter 25 * Kel Niaad felt that musical instruments found in homes in the Anemone Ward resembled Vidona torture implements, "especially the ones with the hungry wires."Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13 * Shuos Jedao did not speculate on what the Vidona might be authorized to say about the purpose of games.Ninefox Gambit, Chapter 13 * The threshold winnowers on the Revenant were guarded by Kel-seconded Vidona officers.Revenant Gun, Chapter 22 * While studying for the Rahal entrance exam, Lirit Mistrikor remarked that her grandparents might send the Vidona after her if her upcoming essay turned out under par.Revenant Gun, Chapter 10 * Concerned that a news bulletin would cause citizens to "play Vidona," Mikodez suggested revealing Kujen's existence by making a bad drama instead.Revenant Gun, Chapter 19 * The flimsy-looking folding dinghy used by Ajewen Cheris in Cheris and the Sea reminded her of Vidona paper-folding art.Cheris and the Sea Links * The Factions: Low Faction Vidona * Author's website References Category:Categorize Category:Vidona